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Apple has completed its acquisition of Shazam

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Re: Apple has completed its acquisition of Shazam

#81
post #32

Shazam is the closest thing we have to witchcraft. I'm sure plenty of HNers will chime in with "well acktually..." type comments about how they could write it in their basement in a weekend, but to do what it does, as quickly as it does, on the ridiculously enormous library of music that it does is really something special.

Well acktually, in my admittedly limited experience, Shazam is not capable of recognizing any music at all without the digitized metadata encoded with sound files. I've tried multiple times to sing very popular songs to it. It never recognized them. You could attribute it to my poor musical skills (and I'm fine with that), but 100% of humans would recognize the songs in < 10s timeframe.

Try SoundHound for singing

Re: Apple has completed its acquisition of Shazam

#82
post #52

Shazam is the closest thing we have to witchcraft. I'm sure plenty of HNers will chime in with "well acktually..." type comments about how they could write it in their basement in a weekend, but to do what it does, as quickly as it does, on the ridiculously enormous library of music that it does is really something special.

I don't mean to take away from Shazam (because I too was amazed when I first used it) but the Pixel phones have Shazam-like ability built in which uses minimal battery and without internet... and it's constantly running any time music plays. Not really "magic" how it works but still pretty amazing that I can pull the phone out of my pocket any time I hear a song I like and immediately see the band/title.

> Pixel phones have Shazam-like ability built in which uses minimal battery and without internet... and it's constantly running any time music plays.

Is it on by default? Cos that sounds really creepy.

Re: Apple has completed its acquisition of Shazam

#83
post #52

Shazam is the closest thing we have to witchcraft. I'm sure plenty of HNers will chime in with "well acktually..." type comments about how they could write it in their basement in a weekend, but to do what it does, as quickly as it does, on the ridiculously enormous library of music that it does is really something special.

I don't mean to take away from Shazam (because I too was amazed when I first used it) but the Pixel phones have Shazam-like ability built in which uses minimal battery and without internet... and it's constantly running any time music plays. Not really "magic" how it works but still pretty amazing that I can pull the phone out of my pocket any time I hear a song I like and immediately see the band/title.

> and without internet

That's really sweet—I wonder how much storage that requires? I would have expected it to require a lot, but if it's on a phone, then maybe not that much?

Re: Apple has completed its acquisition of Shazam

#84

Shazam is the one app that has been around since about the birth of the iPhone that honestly still blows my mind in it's capabilities. The fact it can so quickly figure out any song in so many environments is incredible. Call me simple, but I use it almost daily, and it is accurate close to 98% of the time. I absolutely love Shazam's iOS app, and they have done a great job keeping up with UI/UX treads for it over the…

Yeah, Shazam was the last Zero to One moment I had with Tech. A true, visceral in-the-moment 'wow' that no social media giant or app has come close to emulating. The user value to time investment ratio is off the charts for Shazam. I love music and what they have done for it, especially in the context of other music apps like Spotify et al. Second the Don't Ruin It Apple plea, but congrats to the creators on a well-d…

Google Now natively supports song detection in surroundings. It is also pretty good at it, and Google will do it passively without ever needing to open it as an app.

I used Shazam a long time ago, so dunno how it had changed, but it certainly isn't a novel idea.

Re: Apple has completed its acquisition of Shazam

#85
post #83
post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't mean to take away from Shazam (because I too was amazed when I first used it) but the Pixel phones have Shazam-like ability built in which uses minimal battery and without internet... and it's constantly running any time music plays. Not really "magic" how it works but still pretty amazing that I can pull the phone out of my pocket any time I hear a song I like and immediately see the band/title.

> and without internet That's really sweet—I wonder how much storage that requires? I would have expected it to require a lot, but if it's on a phone, then maybe not that much?

[deleted]

Re: Apple has completed its acquisition of Shazam

#86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand why you do expect others to know about that when Shazam is ubiquitous and you haven't bothered to try it yet. See for yourself. Expecting people to know how is it different from an LG Chocolate is just absurd...

Apparently Verizon's LG Chocolate came with a service called VCast Song ID, that did the same thing as Shazam: "On certain phones, users can record a 10-second clip of a song, have it automatically identified, and optionally buy a copy of it for playback on a phone or computer." ( https://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/name-that-tune-with-ver... ) That said, Shazam is actually older, having started as a shortcode servi…

I am equal parts amazed and horrified when I hear that some app started out as an MMS hack on feature phones. Dictionary lookups, directions, and multimedia, all on "candybars". It's one area the US never really got behind and jumped straight to smartphones and discrete apps.

How exactly did this come to be?

That's the anthology I want to read.

Re: Apple has completed its acquisition of Shazam

#87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My first experience with Uber made me so annoyed I e-mailed them to demand they delete my account, although I eventually tried it again.

Uber charges you for "wait time" after you request a car...which is insane. Not that Lyft is much better, but I've never seen that kind of nonsense with them.

How is it nonsense? Someone is using their time and fuel to get to your location. It's only natural you pay for it.

Re: Apple has completed its acquisition of Shazam

#88

Shazam is the one app that has been around since about the birth of the iPhone that honestly still blows my mind in it's capabilities. The fact it can so quickly figure out any song in so many environments is incredible. Call me simple, but I use it almost daily, and it is accurate close to 98% of the time. I absolutely love Shazam's iOS app, and they have done a great job keeping up with UI/UX treads for it over the…

I can't really be bothered to install an app for this purpose but I'm constantly disappointed that Google's assistant is so bad at picking up music. I would say it works less than half the time. It only works in public areas if it's pretty quiet.

Re: Apple has completed its acquisition of Shazam

#89
post #83
post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't mean to take away from Shazam (because I too was amazed when I first used it) but the Pixel phones have Shazam-like ability built in which uses minimal battery and without internet... and it's constantly running any time music plays. Not really "magic" how it works but still pretty amazing that I can pull the phone out of my pocket any time I hear a song I like and immediately see the band/title.

> and without internet That's really sweet—I wonder how much storage that requires? I would have expected it to require a lot, but if it's on a phone, then maybe not that much?

The database holds fingerprints for ~17000 songs and takes 53MBs: https://www.xda-developers.com/google-pixel-2-now-playing-so...

Re: Apple has completed its acquisition of Shazam

#90

Shazam is the one app that has been around since about the birth of the iPhone that honestly still blows my mind in it's capabilities. The fact it can so quickly figure out any song in so many environments is incredible. Call me simple, but I use it almost daily, and it is accurate close to 98% of the time. I absolutely love Shazam's iOS app, and they have done a great job keeping up with UI/UX treads for it over the…

>With all that said, PLEASEEEEEE don't ruin it, Apple.

This looks to me like an acquihire for the ML/AI/DL talent. So basically, yes they will be diverted to other projects.

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